Localizing the Grid Headers

Updated on Oct 7, 2026

If you develop a multilingual application, you can display grid header text according to the current culture. RadGrid supports this behavior in the same way as the ASP.NET GridView control when you change the page culture.

The first option is to localize header text dynamically through RadGrid resource files. Another option is shown below. The first example uses auto-generated columns, and the second uses declarative columns:

Localizing auto-generated columns

ASP.NET

<telerik:RadGrid RenderMode="Lightweight" ID="RadGrid1" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" AllowSorting="True"
  runat="server" OnColumnCreated="RadGrid1_ColumnCreated">
  <MasterTableView Width="100%" AutoGenerateColumns="True" />
</telerik:RadGrid>
<br />
<asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource1" runat="server" ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:NorthwindConnectionString %>"
   SelectCommand="SELECT * FROM [Customers]"></asp:SqlDataSource>

C#

protected void RadGrid1_ColumnCreated(object sender, GridColumnCreatedEventArgs e)
{
    GridColumn boundColumn = e.Column as GridColumn;
    switch (boundColumn.UniqueName)
    {
        case "ContactName":
            boundColumn.HeaderText = "My customized contact name";
            break;
        case "ContactTitle":
            boundColumn.HeaderText = "My customized contact title";
            break;
        case "Address":
            boundColumn.HeaderText = "My customized address";
            break;
    }
}

VB.NET

Protected Sub RadGrid1_ColumnCreated(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As GridColumnCreatedEventArgs) Handles RadGrid1.ColumnCreated
    Dim boundColumn As GridColumn = CType(e.Column, GridColumn)

    Select Case boundColumn.UniqueName
        Case "ContactName"
            boundColumn.HeaderText = "My customized contact name"
        Case "ContactTitle"
            boundColumn.HeaderText = "My customized contact title"
        Case "Address"
            boundColumn.HeaderText = "My customized address"
    End Select
End Sub

Localizing declarative columns

ASP.NET

<telerik:RadGrid RenderMode="Lightweight" ID="RadGrid2" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource2" AllowSorting="True"
  runat="server" HorizontalAlign="NotSet">
  <MasterTableView Width="100%" AutoGenerateColumns="False" DataSourceID="AccessDataSource2">
    <Columns>
      <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="ContactName" HeaderText="" UniqueName="ContactName" />
      <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="ContactTitle" HeaderText="" UniqueName="ContactTitle" />
      <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="Address" HeaderText="" UniqueName="Address" />
    </Columns>
  </MasterTableView>
</telerik:RadGrid>
<br />
<asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource2" runat="server" ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:NorthwindConnectionString %>"
  SelectCommand="SELECT * FROM [Customers]"></asp:SqlDataSource>

VB.NET

Protected Sub RadGrid2_ItemCreated(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As GridItemEventArgs) Handles RadGrid2.ItemCreated
    If TypeOf e.Item Is GridHeaderItem Then
        Dim headerItem As GridHeaderItem = CType(e.Item, GridHeaderItem)
        Dim button As LinkButton = CType(headerItem("ContactName").Controls(0), LinkButton)
        button.Text = "My customized contact name"

        button = CType(headerItem("ContactTitle").Controls(0), LinkButton)
        button.Text = "My customized contact title"

        button = CType(headerItem("Address").Controls(0), LinkButton)
        button.Text = "My customized address"
    End If
End Sub

C#

protected void RadGrid2_ItemCreated(object sender, GridItemEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Item is GridHeaderItem)
    {
        GridHeaderItem headerItem = e.Item as GridHeaderItem;

        LinkButton button = headerItem["ContactName"].Controls[0] as LinkButton;
        button.Text = "My customized contact name";

        button = headerItem["ContactTitle"].Controls[0] as LinkButton;
        button.Text = "My customized contact title";

        button = headerItem["Address"].Controls[0] as LinkButton;
        button.Text = "My customized address";
    }
}

See Also

• Localization through Resource Files
• Localizing the Grid Messages